“I have huge respect for those who, like me, share a common passion for Nintendo and want to make it clear that I would never use and I didn’t use this terminology in such a context or way to cause offense,” he said.

“I regret that this misunderstanding has created such offense and disappointment within the community.”

You know, in all honesty "geek" and "otaku" are way low in the list of things I've been called that cause me offense, but I can certainly see how some people would get upset. As for Laurent, all I can say is always talk as if what you say is going to end up on the front page of a major gaming blog, because it generally is.

Exclusive: Nintendo’s Laurent Fischer “regrets” geeks and otaku remark [videogaming247]

Take two wacky Asian boys, one crazy white girl, the world's biggest MMO and a SOMA apartment for rent and what have you got? Why, World of Housecraft of course!

This ad looking for a roommate surfaced on Craig's List a few days ago and has been subsequently taken down, but thanks to Digg and mirror sites, the image was saved for posterity. Not only is it possibly the nerdiest apartment ad ever, but also the most creative. Someone obviously spent a lot of time creating this image to entice a fellow Warcrafter into their home for fun and geeky times gathered around the glowing warmness of the computer screen's warming glow.

Why the ad was pulled is unknown. Perhaps it was a copyright issue or maybe they just found the perfect person to fill their little house with the geek love it so sorely needs and deserves. (click the image for a full sized version) Flynn De Marco

[via GayGamer]

The early nominees for Wired.Com's sexy geek list didn't include Jade Raymond and it bothered me to distraction. Fortunately, the final list of ten has her smack dab in the middle.

Sure she may not have demoted Pluto to a dwarf, have a degree in applied physics from Stanford or is helping push forward the first human clinical trials involving embryonic stem cells in the U.S., but look at that smile.

Jade Raymond is gorgeous, no doubt, and it's no surprise that like several other attractive women, she's a co-host on G4. But Raymond carries serious geek cred as a game programmer who this year produced Assasin's Creed for the PS3, which incorporates awesomely realistic crowd gameplay.

Congrats Jade, here's to you making it in the top five. Brian Crecente

Vote for Your Favorite Sexy Geek [Wired]

Is this getting old yet? I didn't think so, either.

Olskoolninja reports that he snapped this while stuck in traffic on Pensacola Beach, undoubtedly swatting fine mamas away from his sweet ride with a stack of twenties clothes-pinned to a Cuban cigar. Yeah, we know how you roll, Olskool.

Mr. Jetta is apparently not only Roxxor, but also a member of our proud armed forces, seagoing division. This fills me with pride, and I'd like to hear how a life of gaming prepared him for his currently lifestyle. I also hope he's driving the diesel Jetta, which is just a cool little machine. It has pleasingly industrial blue smoke and makes a noise like this: nurglenurglenurglenurgle.

Keep sending them in, gentlemen. Eventually we can compile the largest gallery of roadborne nerdery this side of the Rio Grande. Eliza gauger

In his series titled simply "Gamers (a work in progress)", photographer Todd Deutsch has produced a series of artfully-composed portraits documenting the slack jaw, slumped posture and terrible skin afflictions with which all gamers are intimately familiar.

Says the artist's statement:

Gaming is an overwhelmingly male subculture dominated by tech savvy brashness and role-playing games known as first-person shooters. Avid players take over empty storefronts and set up temporary computer networks for 2 days of nonstop video combat. The events are called LAN parties and resemble a cross between the rebellious bravado of a biker rally and the adolescent nerdiness of Boy Scout camp. Gamers often exist on contradictory fringes of mainstream culture. Their association with violent games brands them as time bombs dangerously close to becoming sociopaths, while their image as computer geeks and loners depicts them as sympathetic and endearing underdogs.

I ramble on after the jump.

The blue glow of wireframe spectacles in a darkened server farm. The vague smile accompanying a successful headshot. Energy drink cans and scattered junk food wrappers. A lone girl, seen distantly over the top of a Windows XP monitor array, as if being secretly subjected to the xenophobic Male Gaze of the viewer.*

I am reminded strongly of my middle school days, wherein I expended hours upon hours and the entirety of my allowance, glued to Tribes and Quake 2 in a seedy network gaming parlor downtown. Are these vistas depressing, funny, nostalgic, exciting? Were they taken at a single event, perhaps a convention, or over the course of days or weeks, gathering to gathering? How much of yourself do you see in these gaping boys? Eliza gauger

Entire Gallery Here [via Aeropause]

* I'm allowed to use this term because I went to art school for a year and a half!